Water Monitor Out in The Wild and what’s Next

I wrote a couple weeks ago about getting this app out the door in by the end of June to start a new project in July. It’s Jul 1st and I’m a day late, but the app is approved for beta testing, so while Im not int he app store it is in the hands of people (who are not friends and family) and being used, so Im calling mission accomplished. I have a few features to finish up (profile editing, empty states, etc) but it’s in good shape. Looking forward to feedback and crashes to fix before it goes into the proper App Store. Im also keeping blinders on as far was the liquid glass situation goes, I’ll cross the bridge when I get there. If have opened up a number of spots for more testers If you would like to give it a try you can claim a seat at this link: https://testflight.apple.com/join/W7YbEjKC

So now that that’s done what’s next? I’m going to start a new project in July. It will be another app, but which one and how will it be made is something I’ll decide over the holiday weekend. For now I’m going to wrap up loose ends, invite testers, and enjoy a neighborhood barbecue.

Water Monitor Updates

One week and lots of progress! Been making lots of design fixes, tying up loose ends I overlooked earlier, and simplifying the design. It’s a bit map-heavy, even for someone who loves maps (guilty!), but getting there. Also, new typeface and refined color palette have cleaned the look, and made it easier to see what’s going on.

On the improvements front, data entry has been updated to reflect the data changes this year in stream recording. Tiles in the site detail page (far right in the above image) have been re-ordered and updated to match the data points and order you enter them in on the MPCA site at the end of the year (you can also copy and paste the comments if you are in the Apple ecosystem and can use handoff).

On the new additions and outstanding features front. Navigation is coming! Just started playing with nav mode, soon you will be able to leave the GPS at home. I expect to finish up design and testing on this one soon.

Also outstanding are some updates to login/create account, profile, feedback, and a few other loose ends. All in all, I expect about another week of design and development.

On that, I will be sending out an invite to testers shortly. If you’ve signed up, awesome! Expect to get a TestFlight link in the near future, and if you would still like to get on the list, you can fill out the survey here. I am on track to start testing soon and be in the app store by the end of the month!

Trail Assistant in the GPT store

I’ve submitted Trail assistant to the GPT store. As it has been trained on more data it has continued to surprise me on how helpful it can be. A few specific improvements are below.

1. GPT store: As mentioned it is the the GPT store this should give it a lot more visibiity and usage to help it improve. It is in the store alongside AllTrails (wah-wah) and a few other similar ones, interestingly Trail Assistant is the top result for most hiking related terms.

2. MOAR DATA: I have been training Trail Assistant on publicly accessible data sets around campsites and hiking trails. It should be more reliable to find sites in Federal and State lands. I’ve also been training it on trail info specifically longer through hiking trails (It’ SHT data is pretty comprehensive)

3. Accessibility: Trails Assistant is now trained to look for accessible trails (it will ask you to help it with what accessible means to you). It is still early days on this one, but there is a lot to do in this space to help more people get outside. Data sources are harder to come by though.

All in all the tool continues to improve steadily. I used it to plan a Sunshine Coast backpacking trip and the specific data on distances and sites was very helpful to start planning.